Charges filed in Evanston bank robbery

Staff report

A 50-year-old man has been arrested and charged with robbing an Evanston bank on Wednesday, the FBI said today.

Lawrence Brown, whose last known address was in Michigan, was arrested Wednesday just before noon near 81st Street and Yates Boulevard in Chicago’s South Chicago neighborhood, according to a federal criminal complaint.

Brown went into the Bank of America branch at 1336 Chicago Ave. in Evanston at about 11 a.m. Wednesday, approached a teller and handed her a note demanded all the cash in the top drawer, the complaint alleges.

The teller gave him several stacks of cash, and the robber put them in his pockets and left, unaware that the teller had included a GPS tracking device with the money, the complaint says.

Less than an hour later, FBI agents tracking the GPS device arrived at 81st and Yates and spotted three vehicles stopped on Yates at the intersection. As they drew closer to one of the them, a blue van, the signal from the GPS device hidden with the money grew stronger. They told the man and a woman in the van to get out and then searched the van, where they found the cash, the complaint states.

In the van, agents also found a black skullcap, white button-down shirt, grey pants, a tie the robber was seen wearing on surveillance video, and a handwritten note that said: “Don’t move. I have a gun. Top drawer money only,” according to the complaint.

Under questioning, the man identified himself as Brown and later admitted to the robbery, the FBI said.